Recommendations for tamiya gearbox motor drivers

Community General Discussions
1

As my name suggests i'm a newbie looking for some advice. I have a tamiya gearbox with two dc motors with suggested operating voltage of 3V. To control these motors i want to connect a ready made h-bridge ic or create my own using some transistors. I'd rather just buy the h-bridge ic to save time but i have some tip transistors if needed.

I have a pic board that outputs 3.3V logic so the driver needs to be compatible with that. The SN754410 seems to make some sense and there's this L298 or L293...etc. There's not many native 3.3V ones around. 

Does anyone have any recommendations

2

I used the Pololu dual Dc
I used the Pololu dual Dc motor driver with my Tamiya twin gearbox. This breakout board has a Toshiba TB6612FNG driver chip. I’ve had excellent results, here’s a link to a blog post I wrote about it if you want more info.

http://www.meanpc.com/2012/01/how-to-use-tb6612fng-motor-driver-with.html

I’ve also heard good things about the L293d based drivers, but I’ve never used one for myself.

3

Just noticed the part about
Just noticed the part about 3.3 volts. According to Sparkfun, the TB6612FNG will work:

Logic supply voltage (VCC) can be in the range of 2.7-5.5VDC, while

the motor supply (VM) is limited to a maximum voltage of 15VDC.

The output current is rated up to 1.2A per channel (or up to 3.2A

for a short, single pulse).

4

oh i definitely know all

oh i definitely know all about pwm, power for motor…etc, i’m not a complete newbie :slight_smile:

thanks for the info and recommendations

5

thanks, i like this one too

thanks, i like this one too

6

pololu has alternative

pololu has alternative motors u can put in the gearbox:

http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1117

this may extend your driver options a bit…

 

7

Also, the L293D and similar

Also, the L293D and similar bipolar transistor driven motor ICs will have a significant voltage drop (about 1.5V). So if you feed in 4.5V from three AA batteries, for example, you’ll get about 3V out to drive your motors.